Linux

My friend who uses Linux mint on a hybrid nvidia laptop faces similiar issues with you. He had gone a lot of trouble on having his Nvidia GPU to work reliably and on some issues with bluetooth which can be attributed to issues with the DE's interface with the bluetooth driver/hardware. I had similar problems with bluetooth years ago when I used gnome on arch linux but it resolved itself later maybe due to some updates. Recently he was faced with problems on updates on his system which borked his DE and just landed him on a console, which was enough for him to restore his system to a previous working state. I think that the hacks and tinkers he they have done to solve the previously said problems (and others I may not be aware of) may have caused the update problem.

As for me I haven't had those problems. This was recent though because years ago you really would be doing a lot of manual tinkering to even make windows games to run on linux. I'm running KDE now on arch and it is even much more stable than my windows partition which I dual boot. Heck, its the windows updates that causes problems on my linux partition.

My friend has similar opinions with you that linux is still not as good as windows and its infuriating specially when it does not work. It may have been because both of you may have chosen a distro not right for your needs and use case. Linux Mint may be touted as a beginner distro for switchers from windows, but I think that this may not be the case for most since some of those who switch are tinkers or may have specific use cases which Linux Mint is not built in mind or incapable of offering. Using Linux though is a learning experience. It maybe easier than ever to jump on linux now but it is still fundamentally different from windows and that some steps from there does not apply here. There's a lot of suggestions and advice on this thread and I suggest that you try some of them.

If you come with expectations that you’ll just be fully catered no matter what your setup is and expect things to just work without ever trying to understand problems, you sure can be disappointed. Believe or not, most of the time those issues are out of control for Linux or the distros, as your hardware vendor made it to work on Windows and Windows only. Community is here to help you, but with your attitude it gets difficult no matter how much others try to help.

i had a similarly confusing and frustrating experience when trying Ubuntu on a netbook many years ago. It has come a long way since then but sometimes you can get a bunch of annoying issues all at once.

It could just be bad luck with the hardware you have (no one really ever cares about the bluetooth adapter in their system until it causes issues) or Mint being behind the bleeding edge.

You might find Fedora KDE to be more compatible with your setup, or you can leave it a bit longer and check back later. No harm in patience!

fucking hate bluetooth ngl, it's a horrendous standard that doesn't do what I want it to do and even when it can it fails horribly and is unbearably unreliable

how did you install the nvidia drivers btw? I thought in mint there was a "driver manager" thingy that installed it for you with one click

I've been on and off with Linux for about 15 years and just want to counter some of the people trying to troubleshoot or criticize to say: it can be really tough.

We need our computers to work and we expect things to function correctly.

I've used dozens of distros over the years. I was a super early Arch adopter, mained Gentoo for about three years, ran my own BSD server for programming projects, and still maintain several small home Linux servers. And even I sometimes want to pull my hair out trying to get semi-new hardware working right in my distro of choice. I spent three hours today fighting Nvidia and sound drivers and eventually just had to give up on that machine after being told that what I want just flat out isn't supported in Linux on the hardware I have.

Take a breath, set it aside until you're ready to take another crack at it, and know that it's a journey. You'll get there or the software will catch up and meet you halfway. No shame in being frustrated :)

Those are not normal problems. Linux generally does work out of the box unless you’ve got weird or new hardware.

Mint usually does the trick ez peasy and that’s why it’s recommended so much. BUT, sometimes it craps on your hardware. I’d actually suggest trying a different distro before you make up your mind. Some are newer than mint and might work where mint doesn’t.

Might I suggest fedora workstation or popos? Fedora and the rpm fusion team make installing nvidia a breeze and it’s running pretty recent kernels and code. I’ve never run popos but it seems to be gaming focused and people generally like it.

If your having the same issues, then you probably do have some hardware incompatibilities. And if that’s the case, you have my condolences-you’d be better off just sticking with something that works - aka windows.

But please do believe me/us when I say you shouldn’t have to work that hard - mint is either too old, or you’ve got wonky hardware that is going to be a pain no matter what.

Thanks so much seriously. This is great

Looks like you used hardware that was designed for windows and are blaming it now on Linux.

I am not understanding the issue you have that requires signing of drivers.

Yes some Bluetooth devices lack the support from the manufacturer's for Linux, the Controllers i have used work great, at least for my needs.

Controllers have better support Linux for ages. Not understanding the issue here either.

Troubleshooting on Windows sucks at least to the same degree. The same non specific error message gets you 50 possible solutions.

No need to announce your departure.

Mint isn't the platform for gaming on Linux. It's way behind on a lot of things like display drivers. Try something like Bazzite or Nobara that have a ton of tweaks for both Nvidia and steam. Honestly, I'm really shying away from recommending Mint to new users, it's getting really stale.

I’m sorry to hear you’ve had so much trouble with Linux. I understand the frustration that comes with Unix based OSes especially after being a heavy Windows user for years.

I did a bit of searching on your profile and saw you’re dual-booting with Windows on the same hard drive. I personally had issues with trying to set that up myself (Windows is a finicky, jealous b****). My own solution was installing my distro of choice onto a separate hard drive - if you can eventually do that I recommend it.

I know you’re getting a lot of flak for your post but it’s good to see honest opinions from people who genuinely want to try Linux but aren’t necessarily the same level of hyper-nerd as the typical demographic here.

Having information from a wider opinion pool will help in understanding how to get Linux to more of the population - but that’s a side tangent.

It’s encouraging to see that you are still open to trying in the future and taking a break from it can help you clear your head and come back with fresher eyes.

Unfortunately I don’t have much experience with NVIDIA drivers, and probably a similar amount of troubleshooting as Mint but I’ve found EndeavourOS to be friendlier to a middle-upper tech/gamer use case. Mint, for me, seemed cold and “office”-y and didn’t work well for me as I don’t only use my browser and word processor.

That said, distros are an almost ridiculously personal choice and part of that is trial and error. If you haven’t gotten the chance I recommend test driving a couple other distros in an Oracle VM (for user-friendliness) so you can decide what you like the feel of before committing to an install again, if and when you feel ready.

Good luck and godspeed until then.

People are downvoting your comments about your actual experience and that’s not helpful.

Folks, please don’t downvote an unpopular (to you) opinion. Instead, try to prove for more info and provide your expertise to help someone try to have a better experience. The point is to help someone learn how to enjoy Linux, not hate them for not liking it. Don’t be counterproductive and solidify a bad reputation of Linux users.

Linux Mint is NOT usable out of the box.

I set Mint up for my 65 year old mother about 4 years ago, and she hasn't had a single issue since. I think it's less about Mint being usable out of the box and more about Mint not doing what you want out of the box...

I can see everyone down voting you to oblivion... And that's sort of fair. But that's beside the point.

I was having trouble with NVIDIA while using mint early on and decided to switch to Fedora. Maybe try that once. Fedora has better defaults for nvidia.

Use the KDE Plasma spin btw. See if it works.

I appreciate the response. What would you recommend as the easiest way to test different distros easily? Vm?

About NVIDIA: yeah, Nvidia on Linux is a big, big mess. Things are improving but it's still a pain in the ass sometimes. Maybe some of your issues could be solved by changing to another Desktop Enviroment.

About Bluetooth: I don't know how recent your hardware is, but maybe changing to a newer kernel (preferably a more up to date Distro, like Fedora) would solve it.

About Compatibility: I don't know what controllers you are using. I personally had issues with Xbox Wireless Controller drivers, and after some searching I easily fixed it with xpadneo, maybe that could help.

Mint is usually a great distro for beginners, BUT it sometimes sacrifices shiny new updates for stability (which is a good feature of Mint), that's why I recommend you to try Fedora. Good luck with your Linux adventure 😃

I use Pop!_OS and have had zero issues getting my Nvidia GPU to work on it, so that or a similar Linux distro that has good Nvidia driver support might be worth checking out.

Maybe Linux isn't the solution you are looking for in this case? I use Linux whenever I can, especially at home because I have far fewer problems than with windows. But it's not a panacea, and if it's easier to use windows then use windows.

Use Pop Os, perfect for nvidia GPU support out of the box.

Normally I don't suggest distro-hopping for newbies but sometimes it's a good idea to try a couple distro before settling in. Since there are tons of different hardware, some distros offer a better out of the box solution for some hardware.

Try openSUSE Leap for instance. ~~Also someone suggested trying KDE Plasma on Mint, so try that first. It might alone solve your problems.~~

By the way, if your need for Windows can be covered on a virtual machine, go that way instead of dual boot. Windows really can mess with your bootloader.